I’ll be honest. I’ve been trying to write this post for about three weeks now, and I kept getting stuck.
It took me a while to figure out why, but eventually, I realized that the reason I got stuck was because explaining how I found a style for the things I build in Dreamlight Valley (or any game, really) involves two things:
- Knowing what my design style actually is
- And then being able to understand how I got there
In some games, that process is pretty easy. I have a style that I like in real life (one that took years to refine from the vehement distaste for yellow I developed thanks to our first apartment), and if I can replicate that in a game, I will.
Final Fantasy XIV and the Sims 4 have always been particularly easy to do that with. There’s just so much flexibility to create, and if I can’t find something that works, I can usually make it up.
But unfortunately, Dreamlight Valley wasn’t that straightforward, even from the start.
What you'll learn
The battle for where to build: Indoor or outdoor?
In every game I’ve ever played that involved design, I gravitate toward interior design. That’s what I love and what I feel like I’m halfway decent at.
But landscaping and outdoor design are a whole other story.
Building outside has always been my weakest point. I never feel like I know what to do with all that space, and I can’t rely on walls to break it up. Paths stress me out. Gardens are even worse. And heaven help me if I’m putting trees anywhere.
If you’ve ever wondered why so few of my builds from FFXIV include the front yard…now you know.
But Dreamlight Valley ended up throwing me a bit of a curveball here. I’m not totally sure why, but it’s almost like the strict structure of the rooms were somehow more intimidating than all the open space of the great outdoors.
That did get better as we got new features like changing room sizes, and as I learned techniques for breaking up rooms with pillars and bookcases. But I never felt quite as comfortable designing indoors in Dreamlight Valley as I did in other games.
So, I decided to see if I could figure out landscaping.
At first, it went pretty much as expected. I struggled with figuring out how I wanted to lay paths. I built forests that totally obstructed my camera and made me hate building. I placed stiff flower and plant arrangements that felt like I’d just forgotten they were there.
And, of course, those trees littered any ideas I did manage to think of with tons of branches.
Eventually, I decided I wasn’t getting it and needed to research.
I ended up turning to Pinterest, trying to see if I could draw inspiration from how more experienced designers did things.
That taught me two lessons that would Change Things Forever (in the most dramatic way, of course):
- Paths don’t have to just be paths. They can be paved areas, too.
- Natural plants like trees and shrubs aren’t limited to their own expansion areas.
Oh, how things were about to change for me.
What I learned about working with paths
When I first started using paths in Dreamlight Valley, I somehow ended up convinced that they weren’t allowed to be anything except actual narrow walking paths. They were to be three-ish squares wide, and their whole purpose was to be a connecting line from one place to another.
After some research, though, I realized that wasn’t really how folks were using paths. And that gave me a whole pile of new ideas.
The first place I put those ideas to the test was the plaza. It took a while to get the balance of paved and unpaved right, but I did eventually end up with a range of path widths that made an adorable little marketplace alley.
And from then on, I kept looking for different ways to use paths instead of just as linear connections between two points.
How my valley got a floral transformation
A little backstory here first.
In real life, I cannot keep plants alive, no matter how much I try. The only ones that seem to survive my care are the ones that I leave outside, where they can thrive in all their natural glory.
So, of course, I have a secret mission to include as many plants as possible in every video game build I do. Because if I’m going to leave the real world behind for a little while, I want to leave my status as a well-intentioned plant neglector behind, too.
I have my favourite placement strategies for all the in-game plants I use. They go on shelves, into little clusters that mix and match flower types, tucked into nooks and crannies. But Dreamlight Valley didn’t work that way.
See, most of the plants in Dreamlight Valley—at least, the ones you can craft or buy—have larger placement requirements than they do foliage. You can sometimes rotate them just enough that they tuck into each other, it’s a tricky process and it never really had the impact I was hoping for.
When I started adventuring in Storybook Vale, I ended up falling in love with the shrubs and trees from Mythopia, and found ways to blend them together in the way I was hoping—but as far as I knew, that would only ever be an option in that map.
As I was looking for inspiration, paths weren’t the only thing I discovered. I also noticed that somehow, people were using the lovely plants from Mythopia in other maps—so there had to be a way for me to do it, too.
And there was: The massive catalog of all the natural plants in the game that hides at the bottom of the furniture menu. Suddenly, I could pull the beautiful trees and shrubs from Mythopia into the main valley.
And with all these things together, my park aesthetic was born.
It may not seem particularly parklike to blend paving and plants, but what I ended up with at the end of all this learning and testing was a design style that reminded me of some of my favourite places. I couldn’t help but remember Central Park when I wandered through the meadow and St James Park as I explored the new plaza.
I’m sure it will continue to evolve as I find more and more new furnishings to fit into my designs, but no matter what I put down in the valley, it always seems to gravitate back toward that park feel.
